With the development of mass spectrometry, studies have been actively made about mass spectrometer-based diagnostics to diagnose many diseases. Among them, Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a method that allows for the vaporization and ionization without decomposing a sample for polymer materials, and in general, it is known as a method that can be very ideally applied to biopolymers or synthesized polymers that have large mass and are unstable to heat. Particularly, according to MALDI imaging technology that measures a mass spectrum from biological tissue and visualizes the distribution of measured compounds as an image, it is widely used in disease treatment research due to its advantage that the distribution of proteins, peptides, lipids, drugs or metabolites in the tissue can be visually identified with ease.
For MALDI imaging, a tissue boundary to measure is identified through an eye or an optical microscope, and a laser is emitted to the tissue to ionize materials in the tissue for mass spectrometry. However, in this case, it is necessary to perform mass spectrometry by emitting a laser to all parts of the tissue, and thus there is a disadvantage that it takes a long time to conduct analysis.